Inker

ABSTRACT

An inker for applying ink to a printing plate comprising a primary inker arranged to apply ink to a storage pad on the plate cylinder in combination with a secondary inker arranged to transfer ink from the storage pad to the printing plate. The storage pad is raised such that the primary inker engages same without contacting the printing plate.

United States Patent 1 91 Dahlgren June 4, 1974 [54] INKER 2,851,948 9/1958 Lucas 101/148 D' [76] inventor: Harold P. Dahlgren, 726 Regal 322 DallaS1TeX- 75247 3,467,008 9/1969 Domoter... 3,563,173 2/1971 Harless... [22] May 197.2 3,614,927 10/1971 .lurny 101/148 [21] Appl. No.: 250,449

Related U.S. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 737,521, June 17,

1968, Pat. N0. 3,664,261.

[52] U.S. Cl 101/137, 101/349, 101/157,

Primary Examiner--Robert E. Pulfrey Assistant ExaminerE. M. Coven Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Howard E. Moore; Gerald G. Crutsinger [57] ABSTRACT An inker for applying ink to'a printing plate comprising a primary inker arranged to apply ink to a storage pad on the plate cylinder in combination with a secondary inker arranged to transfer ink from the storage pad to the printing plate. The storage pad is raised such that the primary inker engages same without contacting the printing plate.

14 Claims, 34 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUN 41914 sum 01 ans wE w PATENTEDJUN 41914 SREET 02 [1F 18 RT M PAIENIEnJuu 4 m4 saw our 1a mm m: y 3314.014

SEE! 05 HF 18 nob" MTENTEDJUH 4:914

sum as or 1s MET 10 one,

H5177 CHANGE/Q Hill? PATENTEDJUH 41914 3.814.014

sum V 15 ur 1a INKER cRoss REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Ser. No. 737,521, filed June 17, 1968, entitled STRAIGHT FEED PRESS, now US. Pat. No. 3,664,26lissued May 23, 1972.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION No significant advances have been made presenting new concepts in sheet-feed printing systems for decades. Printing systems designed for the sheet-fed printer are basically the same and allow printing on one side of the sheet at a time, requiring sheets to be turned over and rerouted through the press for single or multicolor perfecting. Sheets are progressively and meticulously transferred in serpentine fashion about transfer and impression cylinders and hopefully registered from one cylinder to another andfrom one printing unit to another until finally they emerge as a printed product. Printing units must be synchronized for color register through numerous drive and idler gears and consequently presses are extremely complex, massive units which are very expensive to 'manufacturebecause of numerous transfer and printing cylinders and mechanisms related thereto.

' One or two color sheet-fed perfectors have been developed heretofore. However, these machines were specifically designed for specific jobs, such as mass production of paperback books, and are totally unsuitable for. high speed production of four-color process printing on both sides of the paper.

Heretofore no commerically successful sheet-fed press had the capability of printing on two sides of a sheet in as many as four colors by passing the paper through the press one time;

It is the common and accepted practice in the printing industry to run a sheet to be printed through the sheet'fed press a multiplicity of times to attain multicolor printing on two sides of a sheet. After each pass of the sheet through. the press, the plates must be changed and the press made ready for the next pass to apply other colors or to print on the back of thesheet.

It is readily apparent to those skilled in the printing art that a considerable amount of time is spent making sheet-fed presses ready to print and in attaining proper registry of the numerous components of the press.

In a typical four-color one-side printing press a sheet delivered from the feeder is caught by the gripper bars of a first transfer cylinder. The sheet is folded around I the transfer cylinder and carried to the grippers on the first impression cylinder where the grippers of the transfer cylinder release the paper and it is caught by the grippers of the impression cylinder. The grippers on the impression cylinder rotate the paper into contact with the blanket cylinder where printing is accomplished in one color on one side of the sheet. When the grippers on the impression cylinder release the sheet, grippers on a second transfer cylinder grasp the sheet, causing the printed surface to be in contact with the transfer cylinder while it is rotated to the grippers of a second impression cylinder. The grippers of the second transfer cylinder release the sheet as it is caught by the grippers of the second impression cylinder which rotates the sheet into contact with a second blanket where a second color is applied to the same side of the sheet. Grippers on a third transfer roller catch the sheet as it is released by the grippers of the second-impression cylinder and the printed surface is again brought into contact 'with the transfer cylinder while it is being delivered to the grippers of a third impression cylinder. This process is continued until the sheet passes to delivery. When one side of the sheet is completed, the press is replated, the sheets are turned and re-fed through the press to print the other side of the sheet.

Virtually all sheet-fed printing presses heretofore developed have the characteristic of feeding the sheet sepentine fashion through the press while the grippers associated with each cylinder catch the sheet as it is being released by the grippers of the previous cylinder.

One of the major problems encountered by the printing industry lies in synchronizing the various cylinders whereby the sheet will be grasped and released at the proper moment for maintaining connecting between the cylinders-of successive towers so-that colors do not overlap or separate.

Chains have been used in the past with limited success to transfer sheets from one printing station to another. However, grippers supportedby the chain were positively indexed to the printing station cylinders in an attempt to regain register which was periodically lost between printing stations.

A chain has inherent limitations as a smooth transfer media because chordal motion of the links limit smooth flow; linear deformation of the chain results from numerous pivot joints. Lubrication requirementsat joints, to help prevent wear, noise, shock and vibration, present maintenance problems.

The gripper and chain transfer media could not, by

itself, register the sheet between the printing stations, even with the chain travelling precisely at cylinder speeds. As a compromise, grippers had to be loosely supported on the chain, moved from normal position, and indexed to printing station cylinders priot to actual sheet transfer at the cylinder. As soon as sheet transfer was accomplished and the gripper became separated from index with the cylinder, the gripper jumped or jerked back into its normal relation withthe chain.

In the transfer system employed and disclosed herein,

there'is nocontact between tape directed gripper bars presses with a multiplicity of towers for applying morethan one color of ink to the sheet were driven by a common. drive through .a complex gear train or through long shafts which have inherent distortion thereby increasing the problem of synchronizing components of the press thereby making precision registry more difficult.

Typical four-color one-side printing presses have an average of about twenty cylinders including the plate cylinders, blanket cylinders, impression cylinders,

transfer cylinders and skeleton wheels. 

1. In a sheet-fed printing press, a feeder station; a delivery station; at least one cylinder support, including spaced side members intermediate the feeder and delivery stations; a plate cylinder journaled between the side members; a plate on the plate cylinder; a blanket cylinder journaled between the side members; a blanket on the blanket cylinder in rotative contact with the plate; an impression cylinder adjacent the blanket cylinder; an ink receptive storage pad on said plate cylinder; a primary ink carrying applicator roller; mounting means arranged to urge said applicator roller into rolling engagement with the pad for supplying an ink film to said pad, said mounting means being adapted to maintain the surface of the primary ink carrying applicator roller spaced from the surface of the plate; a secondary inker comprising at least one form roller; mounting means arranged to position said form roller to move into engagement with said pad and with the plate whereby an ink film is transferred from the ink pad to the form roller which subsequently replenishes ink to the plate; continuous sheet transfer means movably extending from the feeder station to the delivery station; gripper members carried by the sheet transfer means adapted to receive and grip the edge of a sheet at the feeder station and continuously convey same, between the surfaces of the blanket cylinder and the impression cylinder to the delivery station; and means to rotate the said cylinders.
 2. The combination called for in claim 1 wherein the primary inker comprises, a resilient transfer roller; means to rotatably secure said transfer roller between said spaced side members in pressure indented relation with said primary ink carrying applicator roller; a rigid doctor blade; means to secure said doctor blade in pressure contact with said transfer roller; means to apply ink to the surface of the transfer roller; and means to rotate the transfer roller such that ink on the surface of the transfer roller is metered to a uniform film by the doctor blade.
 3. In a device for inking the plate on the plate cylinder on a printing press, support means for securing the device relative to the plate cylinder; an ink storage pad covering a portion of the surface of the plate cylinder; a primary inker secured to the support means; ductor means in said primary inker arranged to prevent direct transfer of ink from said primary inker to said plate adapted to apply a metered ink film to the storage pad; a secondary inker secured to the support means having an ink form roller positioned to roll into contact with the pad and with the plate, said form roller being arranged to transfer the metered ink film from the ink storage pad to the plate; and means to drive said plate cylinder, said primary inker and said secondary inker.
 4. The combination called for in claim 3 wherein said primary inker comprises at least one applicator roller arranged to engage the storage pad.
 5. The combination called for in claim 4 wherein the primary inker comprises, at least one transfer roller rotatably secured to said support means; a doctor blade; means to movably secure the doctor blade to said support means; means to positiOn said transfer roller in pressure contact with the outer edge of the doctor blade; and means to intermittently contact the surface of the applicator roller with the surface of the transfer roller and the pad.
 6. The combination called for in claim 5 with the addition of means for adjusting pressure between the surface of the transfer roller and the doctor blade to vary the thickness of the ink film over the length of the transfer roller, and to provide lateral distribution of ink thereon.
 7. The combination called for in claim 5 with the addition of means for varying pressure uniformly over the length of the transfer roller whereby the ink film thickness may be regulated without disturbing lateral distribution.
 8. The combination called for in claim 5 with the addition of means for varying the surface speed of the transfer roller relative to the surface speed of the ink storage pad for regulating the thickness of the ink film applied to the ink storage pad.
 9. The combination called for in claim 4 with the addition of means to position the ink pad such that said ink pad is raised with respect to the plate whereby the applicator roller of the primary inker is in rolling contact with the ink pad but is not in contact with the plate.
 10. The combination called for in claim 3 with the addition of a blanket cylinder rotatably journaled in said printing press; a blanket detachably secured to said blanket cylinder, said blanket cylinder having a recessed area in the surface thereof such that the ink pad enters said recessed area as it rotates, but does not contact the blanket.
 11. The combination called for in claim 3 wherein the secondary inker includes a plurality of form rollers; at least one vibrator roller in pressure rolling contact with at least two of said form rollers; and means for positioning each form roller to roll into contact with the ink storage pad and with the plate for transferring an ink film from the ink storage pad to the plate.
 12. The combination called for in claim 11 with the addition of a plurality of sets of spaced form roller hangers adjustably secured to the mounting means; a form roller rotatably journaled in each set of hangers; and means for moving said hangers toward and away from the plate cylinder to adjust pressure between the surfaces of the form rollers and the plate and ink pad.
 13. The combination called for in claim 4 with the addition of at least one bridge roller arranged to transfer ink from the application roller of the primary inker to the ink form roller of the secondary inker.
 14. The combination called for in claim 1 with the addition of means to rotate the applicator roller and plate cylinder at different surface speeds. 